Give cyclone damage report in 5 days: CM

Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has given the administration five days to conduct a detailed inquiry and assess the damage Cyclone Phyan caused in Maharashtra.

Chavan has asked for a comprehensive report by Tuesday.

The CM has also directed the government to disburse the stipulated ex-gratia amount. The amount could be between Rs 10,000 and Rs 50,000 depending on the damage.

Cyclone Phyan has left behind a trail of destruction behind in three districts of Maharashtra with four dead and 17 fishing boats with at least 110 fishermen still missing in the Arabian Sea. “Preliminary reports say about 498 villages have been affected by the cyclone in the districts of Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg and three bodies of fishermen from Karnataka were found,” S.C. Mohanty, Director of Disaster Management said on Thursday. “The number of injured has touched 14.”

Chavan met the district collectors at Mantralaya to take stock of the situation and directed the official machinery to continue search operations of the missing fishermen in the region.

Official sources said four ships and four helicopters of the Coast Guard had been pressed into service for the missing fishermen on the Konkan coastal region. Sources estimated initial damage caused by the cyclone at Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore but officials refused to put a number to the losses until the survey report was out.

“Totally 289 boats, 2,029 fishing nets and 517 cattle sheds have been damaged. The total loss to the power supply infrastructure is about Rs 2 crore,” said Mohanty. “There has been damage to 412 hectares of agricultural land with an estimated loss of Rs 20 crore. The loss in the fisheries sector is around Rs 4 crore and that to revenue department about Rs 7 crore.”

Power supply has also been severely affected at various places as electric poles have been uprooted or blown away.